"Oma" Els Bendheim was an incredible woman. In her close to one hundred years she accomplished an incredible amount - besides her close to four hundred descendants כן ירבו, בלי עין הרע!!! Ba'alas Tzdaka Va-Chesed, Hostess, Scholar etc. etc. There is so much to say and it will yet be said. I lived across the street from her and her late, great husband Charlie in the city and as a friend of her grandson R' Michael Eisenberg [world famous author and CEO. I officially learn full time and he is dealing daily with hundreds of millions of dollars but he is far, far greater than me in Torah. Hands down], I spent time in their house in Long Beach. Great memorable times. I miss them.
The Bendheims were among the greatest Baalei Tzdaka and Chesed in the Jewish people. Among other institutions - they supported Lakewood Yeshiva and Ponovitch [if I remember correctly they actually saved Ponovitch from going under at one point]. If you have even been to Shaarei Tzedek hospital then you might well have been on "Charlie's floor". Just amazing people on so many levels. The world is so much more impoverished now that they are not here anymore. Money isn't everything or anything - unless you know what to do with it. The Bendheims knew what to do with it. אשריהם בעולם הזה ובעולם הבא. They are proof that you CAN "take it with you".
For me personally it is a sad milestone: My last friend [my age] to lose a grandparent. That is it. My friends and I are ב"ה parents and grandparents ourselves and going in one direction. So it is either waking up and doing teshuva before it is too late, or else רח"ל......
